


Bedside Manner

by CuriosityRedux



Series: Dragon Drabbles Berk [35]
Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Hiccstrid - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-26
Updated: 2018-11-26
Packaged: 2019-08-29 23:49:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16753819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CuriosityRedux/pseuds/CuriosityRedux
Summary: Astrid's not feeling up to snuff.





	Bedside Manner

**Bedside Manner**

**-**

Hiccup sighed and crossed his legs above his blankets. The girl was asleep, finally, after hours of violent coughing. Her wheezing breaths rattled through the quiet room. Her braid was a mess, half undone and spread across his chest. A breeze beat at the house’s shutters. 

He shut his eyes. Astrid was so Thor-forsakenly stubborn— she’d waited until she was about to pass out to come to the Haddock house for help. Hiccup had opened the door to find his girlfriend pale and leaning in the doorway. Her forehead, despite the cold weather, was sweaty, and her eyes were tired. Hiccup knew she’d been developing a cough, but he didn’t know it’d come to this.

Stoick had accepted the girl with open arms of course, offering her Hiccup’s bed while her parents were out on a hunt. Between the two bumbling Viking men, they’d somehow managed to wash the weak girl’s face and force her to choke down some soup and some water. Then she’d turned her back on them and spent the next few hours wracked by painful-sounding coughs.

Stoick had somehow managed to fall back asleep. Hiccup hadn’t. Stretched out on a pallet on the living room floor, he winced at every shift, creak, and wheeze that came from the upper floor. It drove him mad. He covered his ears, shoved his head under the pillow, anything to drown out the sound of his tortured girlfriend’s sounds of discomfort. Finally, he couldn’t smother the worry any longer, and he tiptoed past his father’s door and snuck up the stairs.

“Hey,” he whispered once he reached the top stair. The lump beneath his bedcovers squirmed. “Are you awake?”

The pillow rustled as she nodded. 

“Do you want some tea?”

There was a long silence, and then a raspy, “Please.”

When he returned several minutes later, steaming mug in hand, Astrid was sitting up in bed, her arms wrapped around her knees. “Here,” he murmured, walking past Toothless’ empty bed. The Night Fury had stalked off to get some sleep when the girl’s noises proved to be too loud for him. 

She took the mug with both hands and sipped hesitantly. As she swallowed dryly, she winced and whimpered.

“I added extra honey.” They’d been together long enough that he was well aware of his girlfriend’s sweet tooth.

Giving him a little smile, she took another sip. “Thanks.” Her voice sounded rough and gravelly, and it hurt just to  _hear_. “Sorry for barging in on you guys.”

“My home is your home,” he told her, giving her a crooked grin. “Your mom feeds me enough. It’s only fair.”

Astrid snorted, shifting so that she could lean on his shoulder. They sat in silence like that for a long time, Astrid drinking tea and coughing, Hiccup trying to resist the urge to pull the cord out of her braid and dig his fingers through her hair. The warmth of her pressing just slightly against him made the hours of cringing worth it. He felt so helpless, but at the same time, like the only other person on Berk.

She leaned over and set the mug down on his bedside table. Not for the first time, he was taken aback at how strange it was to have her in his room at this hour. During the day, sure, she’d been up there a few times. But never after dark. _Never_  half dressed like this. 

“Still, I appreciate it.” She buried back beneath the covers. For a moment, he thought he was being dismissed, but her eyes smiled at him in the dim room. “Do you want to lay with me? Or are you going to be awkward about that too?”

Hiccup resisted the urge to blush. Instead, he crawled over her and stretched out over the blankets. His heart picked up speed when she turned over and rested her head against his chest, but that was nothing compared to what it did when she wrapped his arm around his waist and molded her body to his. With her so close, he could hear the uncomfortable way her breaths scraped in and out.

She succumbed to another coughing fit. He frowned. But when it passed, she knotted her fingers in his shirt. Her eyes shut, and she settled.

He waited a long time for her breathing to even out. His eyes were heavy, burning with lack of sleep, but he wouldn’t rest until he knew she was fast asleep. When at last, she gave an adorable little snore, he sighed with heavy satisfaction and finally let his eyelids fall. 


End file.
